Announcement

I get emails all the time from odd email addresses claiming to offer ‘SEO services’. More recently though the emails i’ve been receiving have taken a more focussed attempt to question whether my site is mobile friendly.

The reason for this, just in case you didn’t know, is likely because on Tuesday 20th April 2015 Google decided to place a requirement on sites to be mobile friendly! Well, it’s not a requirement as far as your site will continue to work, but by not having a mobile friendly site your SEO rankings will be hampered and your search result rankings will drop!

For more information on what this is all about and for the official scoop direct from Google, you can check Google’s official announcement here. It’s a bit wordy and long-winded, so I’ve summarised the key points below for you below…

What do I need to do to become Mobile Friendly?

If you use the testing tool and find you’re not meeting the requirements to be deemed ‘Optimised for Mobile’ then you can also read some of the guidelines here on the WebMaster Blog. Just to give you the highlights though, the post says of optimising your site:

A page is eligible for the “mobile-friendly” label if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:

Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash

Uses text that is readable without zooming

Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom

Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

If you want to make sure that your page meets the mobile-friendly criteria:

Check your pages with the Mobile-Friendly Test

Read our updated documentation on our Webmasters Mobile Guide on how to create and improve your mobile site

See the Mobile usability report in Google Webmaster Tools, which highlights major mobile usability issues across your entire site, not just one page

Check our how-to guide for third-party software like WordPress or Joomla, in order to migrate your website hosted on a CMS (Content Management System) to use a mobile-friendly template

We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.

There are a whole host of other tips and advice on mobile-optimising your site, just head on over to Google’s dedicated micro-site to find out all about this thing!

These three guys have an absolute wealth of knowledge between them when it comes to this industry which can often feel like a minefield. So, let them help you navigate it! In this Webinar they promise to teach you:

6 Strategies to implement that will transform your photography business

The biggest mistakes you are making when dealing with your clients

Why clients are saying you’re “Expensive”

2015 will see me transition from the day job into full time photography and some of the most sage advice I’ve been given came from Steve Saporito himself. Steve taught me perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt as a photographer so far. It sounds like a simple one, but I’ll tell you for free that it’s the most powerful tool I have when it comes to booking clients. Steve told me: “You just have to care”. I instantly adopted this approach even more, taking on board the other things that Steve said and really listened to my clients. I asked them questions about them, how they felt about one another, how they met and really showed a genuine interest in their answers. I started to connect with my clients on a new level and through that I was able to start booking more clients AND at higher averages than before. It’s not a jedi mind trick, it’s not neuro linguistic programming: as Steve says – You just have to care! If, in that one nugget of information Steve has helped me to book more clients and increase my average from £650 per client to over £1,000, then that tells me that this is a Webinar that I must tune into. And so should you!

You may remember our very own interview with Steve from Episode 17 of the Ready Steady Pro Podcast – which has proven to be the most popular download to date with well over 1,000 downloads more than the second most popular episode. If you liked what you heard in that interview, then you’re going to love what Steve has to say in this Webinar. (Did I mention it’s free?)

The Podcast is returning and new episodes are ready for release!

I’ve had numerous emails, messages on Facebook and posts to the Ready Steady Pro Community all asking the same thing: “Is my Podcast App broken?”

Don’t sweat it guys. Your Podcast app is not broken!

The last episode of the podcast, episode 14 was released on January 13th. I remember saying at the start of that episode that my newborn son was sleeping well at the time and that I didn’t want to jynx it.Well, I did just that! That first week he was sleeping wonderfully but almost immediately after that episode was released he started to wake during the night. Suffice to say we were tired! Add to that the fact we have an energetic two year old daughter too meant that my poor wife was left holding a sleepless baby and chasing after a bundle of energy.

It was time for some time off! Lel Hurst perhaps put it the best way I’ve heard so far: “Michael’s been on Paternity leave”.

Well things are going smoothly again now and after plenty of time spent at home with the family It’s about time to begin podcasting again. So I’m very pleased to announce that as of Tuesday 8th April you’ll start to see one episode every week in your podcast feed!

For Episode 15 I’m really pleased to share a round table discussion that I had with Lel Hurst, Lee Jones, Rob Grimes and Neil Graham where we talked about what gear we had in our bags to shoot our niches. we discussed what gear we couldn’t live without and even what gear we could easily have not bothered buying when we started out.

So, if you’re new to the game (whether it’s weddings, portraits, sports or wildlife) I hope that this episode will have something in it for you.

Oh, and as I do with every episode I’ve got some news and some announcements that I’ll talk about a little bit both at the start and at the end of episode 15 including ways you too can get involved with Ready Steady Pro!